How to run two grunt watch tasks simultaneously
GruntjsGrunt Contrib-WatchGruntjs Problem Overview
Is it possible to run two watch tasks simultaneously?
I understand that I can have any number of tasks I want inside watch settings and just launch grunt watch and it will watch all of them, like this
...
watch: {
A: {
files: "js/dev/**/*.coffee",
tasks: ["coffee", "requirejs"]
},
B: {
files: "js/dev/**/*.coffee",
tasks: ["coffee"]
},
C: {
files: "js/dev/**/*.html",
tasks: ["copy"]
}
}
...
...but I don't need this. I just want to have different set of tasks for development and production. As you can guess, the only difference between A (production) and B (development) is minification and concatenation. I don't need to launch A and B tasks at the same time.
First I came with this idea
grunt.registerTask("prod", ["watch:A", "watch:C"]);
grunt.registerTask("dev", ["watch:B", "watch:C"]);
But this didn't work. Just first watch tasks is working (C never works). Is that possible to do what I want?
Gruntjs Solutions
Solution 1 - Gruntjs
I've found using grunt-concurrent works:
concurrent: {
options: {
logConcurrentOutput: true
},
prod: {
tasks: ["watch:A", "watch:C"]
},
dev: {
tasks: ["watch:B", "watch:C"]
}
}
Then:
grunt.registerTask("prod", ["concurrent:prod"]);
grunt.registerTask("dev", ["concurrent:dev"]);
Solution 2 - Gruntjs
EDIT: concurrent now has a logConcurrentOutput option! More info here: https://github.com/sindresorhus/grunt-concurrent#logconcurrentoutput.
Watch is a weirdly concurrent but blocking task, so you have to be creative to get multitask-like functionality working.
Concurrent loses all output from the watch tasks, which isn't ideal.
Try dynamically writing the config object in a custom task:
grunt.registerTask('watch:test', function() {
// Configuration for watch:test tasks.
var config = {
options: {
interrupt: true
},
unit: {
files: [
'test/unit/**/*.spec.coffee'
],
tasks: ['karma:unit']
},
integration: {
files: [
'test/integration/**/*.rb',
'.tmp/scripts/**/*.js'
],
tasks: ['exec:rspec']
}
};
grunt.config('watch', config);
grunt.task.run('watch');
});
Solution 3 - Gruntjs
The best and only working solution is there : https://npmjs.org/package/grunt-focus Add this plugin and then :
focus: {
sources: {
include: ['js', 'html', 'css', 'grunt']
},
testu: {
include: ['js', 'html', 'css', 'testu', 'grunt']
},
testi: {
include: ['js', 'html', 'css', 'testu', 'testi', 'grunt']
}
},
watch: {
js: {
files: paths.js,
tasks: ['jshint'],
options: {
livereload: true
}
},
html: {
files: paths.html,
options: {
livereload: true
}
},
css: {
files: paths.css,
tasks: ['csslint'],
options: {
livereload: true
}
},
testu: {
files: ['test/**/*.js', 'test/**/*.css'],
tasks: ['mochaTest'],
options: {}
},
testi: {
files: ['test/**/*.js', 'test/**/*.css'],
tasks: ['exec:cleanTestDB', 'protractor_webdriver', 'protractor'],
options: {}
},
grunt: {
files: ['Gruntfile.js', 'server/config/env/*.js'],
options: {
reload: true
}
}
}
Then you use focus:sources or focus:testu as your convenience.
JM.
Solution 4 - Gruntjs
grunt-concurrent or grunt-focus are both good solutions, but both of them break livereload functionality.
My solution to this is to compose the watch configuration dynamically, with the assumption that you won't be running both configuration at the same time.
You can do something like this
grunt.config.merge({
watch: {
options: {
livereload: true
},
C: {
files: "js/dev/**/*.html",
tasks: ["copy"]
}
}
});
grunt.registerTask('watch-forProd', function () {
grunt.config.merge({
watch: {
A: {
files: "js/dev/**/*.coffee",
tasks: ["coffee", "requirejs"]
}
}
});
grunt.task.run('watch');
});
grunt.registerTask('watch-forDev', function () {
grunt.config.merge({
watch: {
B: {
files: "js/dev/**/*.coffee",
tasks: ["coffee"]
}
}
});
grunt.task.run('watch');
});
grunt.registerTask("prod", ["watch-forProd"]);
grunt.registerTask("dev", ["watch-forDev"]);
Solution 5 - Gruntjs
SEPTEMBER 2018
You don't need to use grunt-concurrent anymore grunt now has this built in, here is a sample from one of my current projects...
module.exports = function(grunt) {
grunt.initConfig({
pkg: grunt.file.readJSON('package.json'),
sass: {
theme: {
files: {
'../../web/sites/all/themes/ifafri/css/generated/theme_ifafri_master.css' : '../../web/sites/all/themes/ifafri/css/master.scss'
}
},
bootstrap: {
files: {
'../../web/sites/all/themes/ifafri/css/generated/theme_ifafri_bootstrap.css' : '../../web/sites/all/themes/ifafri/css/bootstrap/master.scss'
}
}
},
watch: {
theme: {
files: '../../web/sites/all/themes/ifafri/css/*.scss',
tasks: ['sass:theme'],
options: {
spawn: false,
livereload: true,
nospawn: false
}
},
bootstrap: {
files: '../../web/sites/all/themes/ifafri/css/bootstrap/*.scss',
tasks: ['sass:bootstrap'],
options: {
spawn: false,
livereload: true,
nospawn: false
}
}
}
});
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-sass');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-watch');
grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-livereload');
grunt.registerTask('default',['watch']);
}
Solution 6 - Gruntjs
Without worrying grunt.registerTask() in Gruntfile.js, I sometimes run grunt as background processes by typing the following in the command line:
$ grunt watch:A &
$ grunt watch:C &
You can make the commands as a batch script for more convenience. Hopefully it helps.
Solution 7 - Gruntjs
I know this not answer directly to the question, but my solution is now to use Gulp instead of Grunt. With Gulp you code and not only configure. So you are more free to do what you want.
JM.
Solution 8 - Gruntjs
Just change the port address and the livereload port. For eg. if the port is 9000 change it to 8000 and live reload from 35729 to 36729
Solution 9 - Gruntjs
Concurrent works fine for me
concurrent: {
options: {
logConcurrentOutput: true
},
set1: ['watch:html', 'watch:styles'],
},
grunt.registerTask('default', 'watch');
grunt.registerTask('htmlcss', ['concurrent:set1']);